Sheetal Babu's Posts (27)
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For my fourth artifact, I'd like discuss the Korean education system. Please refer to links below for more information.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMwUwIi8a5s
http://chronicle.com/article/For-Expat-Professors-in-South/128951/
The education system in South Korea is no joke. It's very intense, competitive and driven almost solely by academics. The average Korean high school student studies between 16 to 18 hours a day.
Senior year of high school is generally referred to as "the year of hell." Why?
Well, similar to how students in the United States have to take SATs and ACTs to have even a shot at getting accepted at a college, Korean high school students prepare for the CSAT. The College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT) is the most important test in a South Korean student's life. Unlike SATs, this is a sort of make it or break it kind of deal. You only have one chance to score high. This test is called 수능 (Soo-neung) and it tests students on what they've learned over their 12 years of schooling. Usually after the Soo-neung exam, students take a university specific exam called 논술. After school, students normally attend a 학원 (hag-won) or for-profit private institution for learning. It's like an academy or cram school.
(noh-n-sool). College admissions focus on academics more than anything. In the United States, colleges will look at your grades, extracurricular activities, rigor of classes, the essay and recommendations. Korean universities want who are good at studying with top grades. The three top schools in South Korea are Korea University, Seoul University and Yonsei University.
The amount of pressure on these students is colossal. After doing some research on the education system, my question was, how does this accumulated pressure affect students?
Korea is a collectivist society, so already encouraging individualism is not common. Usually students focus on studying whereas in the United States, the focus is on critical thinking and leadership. Korean students tend to have less or no meaningful hobbies because they spend more time at school than anything else. Korean students are nurtured to become hard workers rather than leaders.
South Korea holds the second highest suicidal rate, just recently surpassing Japan. What does that tell you? A lot of students do commit suicide because of the added pressure of doing well in school.
Korean_Artifact_Asking_Answering_Questions_About_Identity.mp3
Basically, my friend are talking about ourselves. We introduce ourselves and then ask questions like "are you a student," "what's your major," "how many people are in your family," "are you American," "which sport do you like," etc. I also asked if she has a younger sibling. She tells me she has an older sister and then I reply, "Oh, I have a younger brother." Then at the very end I ask her if she likes coffee and we "go off" to a Starbucks for coffee. The end :)
Culture shock, the uneasy feeling of disorientation experienced by a person who finds themselves in an unfamiliar culture. The culture video we watched in class was very interesting. I thought that it provided a variety of personal students from the as well as the faculty.
I always thought that culture shock was something that happened initially upon arrival in a different country and culture, but that's not necessarily true.
It was interesting to hear about how different the classroom situation was abroad compared to Richmond for each individual student. There seemed to be several things that most of the exchange student somewhat agreed on. Most of them felt that their school workload had increased and others were surprised by how much students were expected to participate in class. Of course, we can't generalize that classes abroad are easier or require little work compared to Richmond. It's just different, not easier or harder.
Some of the students in the video talked about their first week at the University of Richmond. It was exciting at first when they were in a new country and experiencing new things. I believe the homesickness, or recognizing significant differences with cultures came after. It's funny how you end up missing trivial things about your home the most.
I experienced some culture shock when I went to India during summer 2010. Everyone in America is pretty much accustomed to saying "goodbye" or "see ya" or whatever before hanging up over the phone, correct? Something that really surprised when I was India was that over the phone, people rarely said "goodbye" before hanging up. I was a bit younger before and less culturally aware of things, so I remember when my uncle had "hung up" on me on the phone without saying "goodbye" and I was a little irritated. As an American, I consider it rude to do something like that, but that's pretty normal in India. My Korean friend told me it was also common in Korea.
Also, holding the door open for someone behind you in India is considered odd behavior. I held the door open once at a bowling alley and people just kept walking right on through (I'm guessing they thought I worked there?).
It's interesting that all these small gestures can be interpreted differently among varying cultures. I think the only way to deal with culture shock is to learn as much as you can about the country you want to visit or the culture you want to immerse yourself in beforehand. It doesn't mean you will avoid culture shock, but it can soften the blow.
Cultural competence deals with the ability to interact effectively with people of different cultural backgrounds. There are four distinguishable qualities of cultural competence: awareness of your own cultural worldview, your attitude towards cultural differences, knowledge of different cultural practices and worldviews and cross-cultural skills.Competence is only achieved after you have obtained an ability to understand, communicate with, and effectively interact with people of different cultures.
Competence ideally requires only three things: open-mindedness, knowledge and skill. Open-mindedness is extremely important initially and throughout the experience. One cannot settle into a culture successfully without being able to recognize differences, no matter how different, and accept them. Knowledge comprises awareness (understanding that there are differences) and knowing the social norms. Lastly, one must have the skills to incorporate all of this into his or her cultural experience.
I've studied a lot about the Korean culture since I will be studying abroad there in the fall. I'm looking forward to arriving in South Korea, a place I've never visited before, and achieving cultural competence there. Of course, I don't know exactly what to expect, but I've done my fair share of research on everything from cultural phrases among younger generations to acceptable/unacceptable gestures. For example, one shouldn't call over someone with their hand and fingers facing upward. It is considered rude because it is equivalent to calling over a dog. In Korean society, the proper way to call someone over is quite the opposite--keep your palm and fingers downward. It is important to note that even something as small as a gesture or learning a few words like "hello" or "thank you" in the language will make a good impression. A good first impression is all you need to get your foot in the door.
It was wonderful working with Brigid this semester to learn Korean. Although, this is a self-directed language learning course, having a language partner to meet up with was a great advantage for any language learner, I'm sure. Since I was a little bit more advanced than the average beginner in Korean, Brigid and I focused on learning the language (including vocab, spelling, sentence formation of certain phrases) based on topics we usually decided on together. I think the other Korean group kind of stuck to the textbook to learn, but I really enjoyed being able to choose what I wanted to study. Since I will be studying abroad in Korea in the fall, I think having the freedom to choose what I wanted to learn was beneficial. I wanted to mainly focus on things that would come in handy for me to use when in Korea. My goal was to learn kind of everyday things like ordering food at a restaurant, moods/expressions, weather, shopping/money exchange and basic vocabulary. Brigid did a really great job teaching me. She's very intelligent and we had fun working with each other, I think. Our meetings were casual and the chill atmosphere really let me be less nervous with practicing speech with her. She was always ready to answer my questions and cooperated with my learning pace.
Immersion does help you learn a language. I'm proof of it. Well, kind of.
Actually, the first language I started speaking was Kannada. The only reason I learned this language is because it was the language my parents spoke to me. Even today, I only speak Kannada with my parents. I'd rather not speak English with them because I'm afraid I'll start to forget Kannada. My point is that I can fluently speak Kannada because I was exposed to it, I was immersed in it even though the level of immersion was low. It's not like I was living in India learning this language, but I was fully immersed in it in my home. So, I do consider it some form of immersion because I learned the language and the culture.
It was interesting to read about the experiment they conducted with the two classes, one studied a language in a classroom setting and the other trained through immersion. I think this article shows that immersion is definitely more beneficial to language learners and I agree. However, I have to comment as someone who learned a language through immersion that classroom learning is also beneficial. I say this because there are holes in my knowledge of Kannada. I know how to speak it, but that doesn't mean I understand the grammatical, structural parts of the language. I think that part is necessary as well.
I'm also very excited about living in Korea for a year so I can learn the language through immersion as well. I'm good at learning languages and I hope to pick it up quickly when I am there. I decided to study Korean through the SDLAP before going abroad because I didn't want to skimp out on the grammatical, structural part of the language and I think it's been very beneficial for me.
Powerpoint:
http://portal.sliderocket.com/BRJMN/My-Presentation-1
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Summary:
The Korean Wave or Hallyu refers to the spread of South Korean pop culture around the world. The term came from China in mid-1999 by Beijing journalists who were fascinated by the fast growing popularity of Korean entertainment and culture in China. The Korean wave is responsible for the $4.2 billion dollars of revenue in 2011 for South Korea through cultural exports.
Before, the trot genre dominated Korea. Trot is similar to what we know as oldies music. After the Korean War, which started on June 25, 1950 and lasted for 3 years, U.S. troops remained in South Korea for protection. With the continued presence of the U.S. military, American and world culture began to make its way into South Korea. During this time, Western music became more accepted to a wider crowd of young adults.
Improvements in the recording systems encouraged the production of LP records in the 1960s. More radio stations started playing popular songs.
In the 1970s, the new career of DJs became popular, significantly impacting teenagers.
In 1980s, the Asia Music Forum was launched. National singers from five different Asian countries competed in the event. Yong-pil Cho won first place and earned a high reputation as a Korean singer in Japan.
K-pop or Korean pop music really took off in the 1990s after SM Entertainment, one of the biggest music companies in South Korea, opened in 1995. Influence from boy/girl bands in America and SM Entertainment's opening led to the formation of Korean girl/boy bands, typically called idol groups.
Today, SM Entertainment has 250 employees and has sold more than 59 million records in the last year alone.
The other two prominent companies in Korea at this time are JYP Entertainment and YG Entertainment.
JYP Entertainment has connections with Hollywood. A lot of songwriters from the U.S. go and work with Korean acts.
Though 55% of Korean music sales are digital, the company makes sure that physical CDs are attractive enough for the fans to purchase. Typically, companies don't sell ordinary CD cases; they're all in glossy, luxury packaging. Sometimes they're released in up to five different packages.
Some critics think that K-pop will ever become as big in countries like the US and UK because music fans in those markets would just be too critical about the lyrics and the artists' accents when singing in English. However, others argue that it doesn't seem problematic considering that while UK revenue from record sales shrunk by more than 11% in 2010, Korean overall sales were up 11.7%.
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Sources:
http://www.monocle.com/sections/culture/Web-Articles/Korean-Music-Industry/
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/organgrinder/2011/apr/20/k-pop-south-korea-music-market
http://seoulbeats.com/2012/04/exploring-the-lack-of-divergency-in-koreas-music-industry/
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/03/hallyu-back-obama-catches-the-korean-wave-.html
http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/8700-to-anyone-the-rise-of-korean-wave/
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/01/22/korean-hip-hop-k-hop-goes-global.html
It was nice to have the class winding down at the end of the semester with culture project presentations. It gave me a chance to glimpse into the richness of several different cultures of the world. These projects not only illustrated specific cultural points, but also showed me a little bit about the person who presented--where his or her interests lie and what they found fascinating. I think a part of understanding culture deals with personal experience and although we weren't sitting in a foreign country learning about its culture, these presentations did give us students the opportunity and freedom to choose something that we were willing to spend time on without leaving the classroom.
I thought the presentations touched upon a variety of cultures, giving me a chance to kind of compare and contrast the cultures. It was interesting to learn about Bhangra and the Punjabi music industry, the social importance of hookah in Turkey, different foods and India's Dalits.
It was surprising to see that some students actually mentioned things from their past presentations. For example, the Korean group had mentioned the Korean Wave a few times before during our presentation on Korean beauty. I don't really know if anyone remembered, but if they did then they could have thought "oh hey, I have a vague understanding of this." I feel that it was built up to that point. Although we were all studying very different target languages, we already had some knowledge of whatever culture was being presented about because of past presentations and class discussions. Incorporating previously made points and observations brought the class full circle. It also called for audience participation. In a way, the students who paid attention were able to make those connections to things that we had all collectively talked about in the class before.
I really like music so I decided to teach someone a few Korean words using a song. Most people are familiar with the "head, shoulders, knees and toes" song, even in parts around the world. I thought it was a good way to teach new vocabulary through this song because it's a simple, familiar song that wouldn't make learning another language too difficult. So the activity is quite simple, all you have to do is replace the body parts in English with the same body parts in Korean. I've posted the lyrics in Korean below.
머리 (meo-ri), 어깨 (eo-ggae), 무릎 (moo-reup), 발 (pal), 무릎 (moo-reup), 발 (pal)
Head, shoulders, knees, toes
머리 (meo-ri), 어깨 (eo-ggae), 무릎 (moo-reup), 발 (pal), 무릎 (moo-reup), 발 (pal)
Head, shoulders, knees, toes
눈 (noon), 귀 (gwee), 입과 (eep-gwa), 코 (koh)
Eyes, ears, mouth, nose
머리 (meo-ri), 어깨 (eo-ggae), 무릎 (moo-reup), 발 (pal), 무릎 (moo-reup), 발 (pal)
Head, shoulders, knees, toes
In conclusion, I taught my younger brother these Korean words for body parts over spring break and he picked it up quite quickly. He had trouble with the pronunciation because he's only ever studied French, but other than that it was easy to memorize, he said.
The people of Korea have great respect for the family and hierarchy. It is still common to see extended families where parents are living with their middle-aged married children and grandchildren. However, this is rapidly changing. It is also more common to see families having double incomes because of changing social norms. To the older generation, the father is the main wage earner and the mother stays home. Unfortunately, women do not have a presence in more professional fields; they stick mostly to receptionist, accounting or educational careers.
The other aspect I mentioned was hierarchy. Koreans have great respect for anyone senior in age, especially in the family. Normally, the father is the head of the family. I've also read that during meals, the rest of the family must wait for the eldest to begin eating before the others. This is typically common during meals at home.
Normally, the oldest son in the family is expected to carry on the traditions of the family.
This hierarchical ethic of relationships is based on Confucian traditions that Koreans adopted a long time ago.
Koreans work extremely hard, but savor family and friends. They like to sing, show emotion and laugh a lot when they are with their family and friends, but are more careful with strangers.
Koreans are a very focused and hardworking group of people. I've heard things here and there about how stressful the Korean lifestyle can be whether you are a student studying in school or an office worker. Students sometimes study for about 18 hours a day. Adult employees tend to work overtime. Not just sometimes, but most of the time. There's something called Korea's "palli palli" culture. "Palli" or "빨리" means hurry. Interestingly enough, this isn't just a phrase, it is a way of life. You'll often hear people say the phrase "palli palli," telling someone to hurry up or to go faster. It seems that Koreans are always in a hurry to catch a bus or train, etc. Koreans are normally on time or even early for things. Their attitude toward time seems to be an obvious one. The phrase "time is of the essence" comes to mind. As Americans, we can relate. We've tagged time with the value of money. I guess Koreans have as well, but I feel they've taken it a step further.
Where did this mindset come from? From what I've read, it comes from the condition Korea was in after the Korean War. At the time following the war, Korea was left in a poverty-stricken state. Self-preservation was extremely important to them. Only a few decades ago, Korea was one of the poorest countries. Now, it has the third largest economy in Asia. Their initial need for survival and growth ignited the flame, their desire to get back on their feet. This "palli palli" culture contributed to said goal and has now become embedded in Korean society. Only in 50 years, Korea has come so far thanks to this mindset, but is the stress level taking a toll on them yet?
For my culture project, I have decided to explore the Korean school system. I'm planning to focus on middle and high school, but I'd like touch upon college as well. I became interested in learning about the Korean school system after watching a short documentary on the pressures that school students face during their time in middle and high school. I've heard a Korean student's school day can be roughly around 18 hours per day. As an American, I feel that 18 hours a day is way too much. Students go to school and continuing studying throughout the day. Some attend cram schools after their regular school. Others have tutors. This type of learning is very foreign to me and I want to investigate the topic more. I hope that it will help me understand the similarities and the differences between American and Korean youths. Korea also has one of the highest suicide rates. I'd also like to explore whether the Korean school system and pressure affects Korea's suicide rates.
Learning the history of a language gives you an interesting aspect on language in general. Language is always changing and being influenced by other languages. I think a language's history can show us how one language is similar to others and how it is different. This ability to make a connection between languages broadens our learning experience in a very unique way. It gives us a chance to explore even more than we thought by looking at how our target language originated. Over the years, Korean has been influenced by Chinese and Japanese. I can see that there are many similar words. Just from the similarity of words, I am encouraged to explore if the words mean the same in the other language, whether it is used the same way. In this way, language learning offers variety and an opportunity to explore other languages in the context of your target language.
I think that learning about a language's history also puts things in perspective. Seeing how, over time, the Korean language has transformed helps me to get a better understanding of the language, it's grammar and vocabulary. Culture can heavily influence language. The more modern Korean used today is a good example. Times change and there are many phrases and words used by the Korean youth that weren't used before.
There is also the influence of English. Since English is a language that has, in a way, crept into many other languages, Korean is no exception. There are many English words that have been adjusted to fit the Korean language. Such as
컴퓨터, which is computer in Korean. In romanized letters, 컴퓨터 is keom-pyu-teo. It's a Korean take on an English word.
I'd also like to reflect upon my progress so far. I think I've done a good job keeping up with my learning goals and activities. I've been practicing reading by reading newspapers and that's helped me to increase my speed which I'm happy about because I used to be extremely slow at reading. I think I need to work more on memorizing voabulary, so that's what I will be doing more of in the second half of the semester. Other than that, I think I've been progressing at a good pace.
For my first artifact, I wrote a card to my Korean friend's mother. Since our first artifact was supposed to cover introductions, farewells and greetings, I thought it was simple enough to write in a card. For my second artifact, I am planning to do a recording. Since it needs to show that I can answer questions about identity, I feel it can be conversational. The best way to showcase a conversation would be recording it and posting it as an mp3. I can ask a Korean friend to record the conversation with me. For my third artifact, it would be neat to make a slideshow and describe my family through pictures and a voiceover. This way you're not just hearing me talking about my family, you can also get a visual of each person in my family. I think it also makes it more personal this way. As for my fourth artifact, I am planning to keep a detailed journal of my learning task. Learning tasks are mostly topic related and can include vocabulary lists and new sentence formations. I think it would be best to scan what I've been learning and post it here.
Drinking in Korea requires serious etiquette and stamina. Drinking in Korea isn't the same as it is here in America. There, drinking is a type social bonding that most Koreans are accustomed to. There are also rules to keep in mind in order to avoid offending anyone.
1. Never poor your own drink. Pouring another person's drink is a sign of respect and is a gesture that encompasses ideas of affection and friendship. Pouring your own drink seems like a rejection of this concept and can be seen as indifference or rudeness.
2. If an elder pours you a drink, drink it. This has to do with the age hierarchy. Whatever an elder wants you to do, do it.
3. Make sure your companions' glasses are never empty. Pour for others.
4. While someone is pouring a drink for you, make sure to hold the cup out with one hand and to hold your wrist with the other. You can also hold the cup with two hands. Do the same when pouring an elder a drink.
5. Turn your back to anyone of higher rank or older age as you drink.
5. Don't be the person who parades through the streets screaming after drinking. Keep it together.
People will also encounter many stops throughout the night. Like I said, drinking = social bonding. There will be many stops during this time of bonding. First, is usually dinner and soju (it's one of Korea's most popular alcohol beverages). Stop two might be at a Hof, a Korean bar where people order snacks with their beer. The highlight of the night might be stop three which is usually at a noraebang (karaoke room). To wrap up the night, those who are left will move to a nightclub or disco place. Koreans party hard.
I wrote a card to my Korean friend's mom.
Reading Korean is difficult. of course it's not impossible, but it is frustrating sometimes. Although Japanese uses three different written forms (Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji), it's easier to read than Korean (I'm going to exclude kanji, though). The tricky thing about Hangeul (the written Korean language) is that you have these sort of 'letters' that must be combined in order to make a syllable or something similar to one Japanese character. Since I'm still a beginner, reading quickly is difficult for me. I noticed that I learned to read Japanese quicker than Korean. It takes more time to figure out what you're reading and how the 'letters' are combined to form words. As for comprehension, I can understand some things, but not many. It honestly depends on what sort of text I pick to read. I practiced reading a newspaper and I couldn't understand most of it, but I could get the gist of some things. I think it would be better if I started with children's books or something really simple. I think it also helps to read aloud. Not only does it help with the reading, but it also helps you to practice pronunciation and enunciation, which is always a plus. I'm working on vocabulary as well. I've memorized the lists given to me by my language partner. We've been focusing on simple things like fruits, beverages and words related to hobbies. I've made tons of flashcards and that's been helpful. Do I have realistic goals? I don't see why not. I'm not trying to rush myself; I'm just focusing on pacing myself and repeating the words I've already learned. Memorization definitely requires repetition.
I've finished my first artifact for the semester and I have to say, I'm quite proud. I wrote a card to my Korean friend's mom and I wrote it in Korean. It's not a very long message, but I think it's a decent length. In the card, I introduced myself (the mom and I haven't met yet since she lives in Korea) and just talked about what I liked. I asked her is if she liked strawberries because it had been on of my recent vocabulary terms. It was fun. My learning goals for week 4 and 5 were completed. I learned how to order food in Korean, how to ask which dish was the tastiest and also whether something had beef in it. Week 5, we extended from the restaurant food ordering to money exchange. I learned to count money and to ask how much something was, how to say expensive/cheap, ask if they take cash/check/credit card. So, mission accomplished.
